Pubdate: Wed, 2 Jan 2008 Source: Plain Dealer, The (Cleveland, OH) Copyright: 2008 The Plain Dealer Contact: http://www.cleveland.com/plaindealer/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/342 Note: priority given to local letter writers Author: Mark Puente, Plain Dealer Reporter Note: Plain Dealer reporter Gabriel Baird contributed to this story. MURDERS UP, OVERALL CRIME DOWN IN 2007 Cleveland Recorded Most Homicides in 13 Years Fueled by gangs, drugs and guns, Cleveland recorded more homicides in 2007 than it has in any year in more than a decade. The city reported 134 slayings. It was the most since 1994, when 141 people were killed. Cleveland's overall crime numbers dropped about 15 percent, police said. Robberies, rapes, felonious assaults and burglaries all decreased. But rising gun violence led to the increase in murders, Mayor Frank Jackson said. City officials said they will aggressively target organized crime, drugs and guns in 2008. The mayor is troubled by the murders. "Our overall plan has been successful to reduce crime," Jackson said. "Police will be more heavily focused on drug trafficking and removing guns from the streets." Police will also spend more time this year tracing the origins of guns used in crimes and prosecuting people who illegally resell firearms on the streets, Jackson said. Cleveland police teamed with federal agencies in 2007 to arrest dozens of high-level drug dealers and disrupt the flow of dope into the city. Jackson said residents should expect more of the same. "It has had an impact," he said. Cleveland wasn't the only city dealing with an increase in lethal violence. Atlanta, Baltimore, Detroit, Miami, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., were among the cities that had an increased number of homicides last year, according to published reports. But murders decreased in the nation's largest cities: Chicago, New York and Los Angeles. Cleveland police solved 64 percent of the city's homicides in 2007 - the highest percentage since 2004, when detectives solved 70 percent. The city's rate of solving homicides was better than the national average of 59.3 percent, according to FBI crime reports. The average of similar-size cities was 49.5 percent. Commander Ed Tomba oversees the Bureau of Special Investigations, which includes the Homicide Unit. He attributed his detectives' success last year to three things: the Crime Stoppers anonymous tip line that offers cash rewards for information, narcotics officers getting better intelligence on the street and patrol officers locating witnesses at crime scenes. Tomba also sees a growing willingness by citizens to offer help in solving slayings. "More people are willing to step up to the plate," Tomba said. "There's a 'swinging back' mentality." Fourteen detectives in the Homicide Unit investigate murders. Last year, the detectives - who also investigate all police-involved shootings - handled an average of 9.5 murder cases each. But Tomba and his detectives know that despite their success there are still families waiting to find out that their loved one's killer has been caught. For a year, Shedlea Chapman of Los Angeles has wondered who shot her 43-year-old brother, Shedrick Chapman Jr., on Jan. 6 in Cleveland. Paramedics found him riddled with bullets in an overturned 1997 GMC Jimmy at East 73rd Street and St. Clair Avenue. He was shot in the right side and in the hand and died a short time later, police said. Shedlea Chapman said she relives the nightmare every day. The family, she said, yearns to learn what happened that morning. The hardest part is waiting for a phone call from the police, she said. Chapman has a message for her brother's killer: "The pain that you put my family and me through, I wouldn't wish it on anyone, including you. I pray that if anyone knows something, please come forward and help my family solve this murder mystery." - --- MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart